United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has appealed to the Government of Indonesia to halt the impending execution, as announced, of the 10 prisoners on death row for alleged drug-related crimes.
The appeal is contained in a statement issued in New York.
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Ban said “under international law, if the death penalty is to be used at all, it should only be imposed for the most serious crimes, namely those involving intentional killing, and only with appropriate safeguards”.
Drug-related offences generally, he said, were not considered to fall under the category of “most serious crimes”.
The Secretary-General reiterated that the United Nations was opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances.
He thus urged President Joko Widodo to urgently consider declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in Indonesia as a first step towards abolishing the practice.
